Iraqi city of Ramadi falls to Islamic State, troops abandon weapons and flee

#ramadi #ISIS #Iraq #johnkerry The Iraqi city of Ramadi has fallen to the Islamic State following days of intense fighting and bombings by the terror group and Iraqi troops have abandoned their weapons and have fled the scene. Black flags have been raised over local government headquarters.
This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 18 May 2015.
Spokesman for the governor of Anbar province has confirmed that Ramadi has fallen … the military is fleeing. The provincial command center in the city had fallen into the hands of the ISIS – this has been informed by a colonel who is among troops who had withdrawn.

However, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has issued orders for the government forces to "hold their positions" and has called on troops, tribesmen and other elite forces to push the militants out of Ramadi.
US Secretary of State John Kerry is on an official visit to South Korea. He has said that he was confident the loss of Ramadi would be reversed and also re-iterated his warning that the fight against IS would be a long one.
The number of casualties is continuously on the increase and approximately 500 people - militants and civilians - have been killed in Ramadi in the last two days. Moreover, around 8,000 have fled as IS launched a fierce offensive of suicide car bomb attacks.
It has also been reported that 15 Iraqi troops and police died on Sunday in four near-simultaneous car bombings. AS a result, the soldiers retreated leaving behind their vehicles and weapons.
(Image courtesy wikimedia.org)

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